Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebels and government negotiators resumed peace talks on Thursday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after a week-long break.
The two sides are yet to adopt a framework for substantive talks to end the unrest in the DRC’s eastern region.
But Bertrand Bisimwa, spokesperson for Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), said he was ”optimistic about the current negotiations”.
The team ”is aware that conditions for a lasting peace must be arrived at with the government as soon as possible for the greater welfare of Congolese”, he said in a statement.
The talks adjourned last Thursday after four days of negotiations that yielded no agreement on the substantive issues.
United Nations mediator Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, said last week the talks had stalled on the rebels’ insistence on broadening negotiations to include the situation in the whole of DRC, not just the east, a vast swathe of which is under rebel control.
Fighting since August 28 between government troops and Nkunda’s forces has displaced more than 250 000 people in eastern Nord-Kivu province.
The CNDP has inflicted heavy losses on the Congolese army, taking control of much of the province, including the outskirts of the regional capital Goma. — AFP
